


Method Acting

by jetpackrat



Category: The Good Place (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-27
Updated: 2018-09-27
Packaged: 2019-07-18 06:54:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16113152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jetpackrat/pseuds/jetpackrat
Summary: Tahani does some character work on the train.





	Method Acting

**Author's Note:**

> anxiouswerewolf said:  
> ok but imagine tahani spending the train ride doing "character work" and coming up with a whole story about her relationship with "diana" that may or may not be rooted in things she's imagined and/or experienced in the past 800 reboots
> 
> Just a short thing I posted on tumblr in response to a prompt approximately a million years ago, reposting here to motivate myself to finish that Overboard AU

Tahani is surprised and a little embarrassed to discover that she rather likes being Rhonda Mumps.

Yes, all right, the threat of discovery and subsequent eternal torture hanging over their heads puts a bit of a damper on the whole thing. Poor Chidi and Jason haven’t her theatrical gifts, and it’s only a matter of time until someone slips up and all four of them are “busted”. Tahani is worried, but Rhonda is not, and so she throws herself into the role with the same passion she once directed towards gala planning and public displays of charitable fundraising.

Rhonda is brash, casual, flippant. Rhonda doesn’t give a damn about what anyone thinks of her, and walks through the room like she owns it. She throws in some of Eleanor’s snark, and a hefty dose of American-style rudeness, which appears to be the baseline for social behaviour in Hell.

Details are crucial to truly living one’s character, as her dear friend Daniel Day-Lewis always told her, and so over the remainder of the train ride Rhonda had also become an only child, a Scorpio, a monster truck enthusiast (she’s confident she’s heard enough on the topic from Jason to be able to fake it) and a lesbian.

She’s quite proud of that last bit; representation does matter, even in Hell. The idea had struck her suddenly, as Eleanor was adjusting the cats-eye glasses that framed her face so well and set off that perfect jawline. It was an inspired bit of improvisation, truly.

And if she stands a bit closer to Eleanor, touches her arm a bit more often, rests her hand at the small of Eleanor’s back…well, she’s just staying in character, isn’t she? Eleanor doesn’t seem to notice or mind; she even leans in a little, when Tahani curves a hand around her slender waist. If there is a flutter in her chest, it’s simply a normal physiological response to being surrounded by literal monsters. If she is acutely aware of every point of contact between them, of the warmth radiating from Eleanor’s body, it’s just the adrenaline sharpening her senses. It’s Rhonda who wants to pull Diana closer, Rhonda who wants to tuck that escaped strand of hair behind Diana’s ear and graze her fingers along the curve of her neck.

Tahani knows she’s an excellent actress; she’s nearly managed to fool herself.


End file.
